Infographic: App Academy 2017 Alumni Survey

Thinking of attending the bootcamp? Check out these numbers.

When it comes to its stated values, App Academy practices what it preaches. For one, the bootcamp takes responsibility for students’ success by deferring course payment until after they get a job. It’s also true in regards to its promise to change students’ lives. To better understand their path, the bootcamp last year sent out a survey to alums. The results revealed App Academy has made a life-changing and tangible impact on our students.

Hundreds of App Academy’s former students took the survey. Among other things, we found which companies they work for and how much money they make. We also found their level of job satisfaction and whether they believed in their company’s values. The latter two questions were key because they showed App Academy’s long-lasting, positive effect on students’ love of coding and on their ability to find the best place to do it in. We’ve written another article on the implications of that finding but the main gist is most alums were happy to attend the bootcamp.

The survey also found other data that distinguishes the bootcamp from competitors.

The median salary of alumni prior to attending App Academy, the survey found, was $45,000. Within a year following the course, the median salary of alum software engineers rose to over $100,000. When you compare these numbers to other bootcamps, App Academy moves ahead of the game.

The independent coding bootcamp research organization Course Report found in its own survey of all bootcamp graduates that average prior student salary was $46,974 and that the post-bootcamp average was $70,698. Yes, App Academy graduates make $30,000 more in salary for first post-bootcamp jobs. That is also higher than the U.S. national median salary for web developers at $64,970, according to data from US News & World Report.

In Course Report’s survey, industry average alumni earned $90,421 for their third jobs. For our survey, we found that within two-to-three years of graduation, alumni salaries went up to $130,000. The App Academy number is higher than even the median salary of U.S. web developers, which is currently at $116,620, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Bureau estimates that coding jobs will grow 17 percent by 2024, so it looks like coding is a great long-term career option.

Another point found was that at least 130 students went from minimum wage or poverty-level income to six figures. That is a huge deal that shows how App Academy can transform lives.

We also found great individual stories of success. One student went from a $30,000 job in education to a $100,000 salaried job with full medical, dental, and retirement benefits at a top New York media organization. Another worked as a $20,000-a-year fine artist and now makes more than $100,000. And one student worked as a chemical lab assistant for years, barely making ends meet on less than $20,000 a year. After a few years, he’s now a front-end manager making $140,000.